sevdalinkas

most fantasy books or fics i’ve read that contained a desert biome fell back on real world prejudice and misconceptions in place of authentic worldbuilding for a place and people, and it is so telling that the trope seems to repeat itself

things like

• the desert as a lifeless wasteland where ‘life is crushed underneath the shifting sands and blazing sun’ blah blah blah. deserts are full of life and they are beautiful and people have lived and prospered in them for eons. please read a book
• the desert as an ugly or barren terrain where everything is harsh and threatening
• the desert as something scary
• the inhabitants as backwards religious zealots
• the men as overly violent and oppressive
• the inhabitants in need of outside instruction/intervention, i.e. “civilizing the savage”
• the “harem” and women as exotic, sensual, mysterious
• writing tribalism with no knowledge of how tribes actually function
• djinn (or for the westerners, genies)
• Islam Lite (the aesthetics or spiritual practices appropriated and stripped of meaning)
• sprinkling random arabic words for ✨flavor✨instead of expanding your worldbuilding to include language as well
• clothing as oppressive or mysterious, instead of serving its actual purpose (protecting you from the elements, which should be obvious but i guess it isn’t. covering your skin keeps you cooler and safer in most deserts)
• people who live in deserts as ignorant, superstitious, uneducated

this isn’t worldbuilding, it’s just ignorance and bigotry

sourb0i

So true!

To anyone writing stuff set in the Mojave/Sonoran Deserts (and maybe the Colorado?) Please please please look up Palo Verde forests!! The trees are green but completely bare of leaves- they photosynthesize directly through their bark. And instead of leaves they have spikes! It's so trippy and cool to be walking through a lush green forest knowing that the nearest water is 50+ miles away.

Other Mojave/Sonoran specific things:

• There's tortoises! They're pretty rare to see but you can often find their burrows, or sometimes skeletons
• Nightjars will wait till you get super close and then fly up, scaring the crap out of you
• There are areas called 'desert asphalt', which are large expanses of black volcanic rock. Looks totally different from any other part of the desert
• There are jackrabbits everywhere
• Everywhere there aren't jackrabbits there's lizards
• It's actually pretty loud; there's loads of insects- mainly crickets and the like- but also lots of birds! You won't see them but by God you will hear them
• Wildflower blooms in the rainy season are the most beautiful thing you'll ever see in your life. There will be so many flowers that you never even knew existed
• If you live near any mountain range, you'll actually see thunderstorms fairly often. You'll never actually get rained on, but there's almost always thunder on the mountains, especially in the evening. Idk maybe that's a metaphor or something

Source: I lived on the edge of the Mojave and Sonoran for a bit, and most of my job involved wandering around the desert for 8 hours a day

heavyweightheart

how to explain to these “everyone knows soda has no nutritional value” people that soda has literally kept me alive as a chronically ill cancer patient in recovery from anorexia nervosa. soda is accessible, digestible, helps w my nausea, helps me get solid food down, boosts my blood sugar when i need it, and is also–get a load of this–a significant source of pleasure in a body whose most salient experiences are discomfort and suffering.

if soda were all i could access? at an overpriced corner store? that’s a serious issue, and a gross injustice. i have been food insecure. i study food insecurity. i feel the weight of this.

but stop pretending that your arbitrary food morality (where it’s food itself that is intrinsically “good” or “bad,” “healthy” or “junk,” according to… you) is a step toward food justice. it’s not; you’re not increasing the autonomy or access of people who are cut off from a healthy variety of foods that align with their needs and values. you’re not improving systems of food production or distribution or the fundamental injustice of arranging these things for profit rather than according to need. you’re only stigmatizing people who do eat those foods to meet their needs, under varying and complex configurations of constraint and choice.

paranoidghosts

POV you meet miku at a concert and she gives you her autograph, turns out she's rooting for u! you got this!!

tk-sketches

ENCOUNTER: Stained Glass Guardian
Guys, I know breaking through the temple windows is more dramatic, but those things take a long time to make.

tsunflowers

I've seen people draw ralsei and mettaton smoking blunts but I want to see queen taking hits off a usb thumb drive like it's a juul

tsunflowers

Kris Trucie Come Smoke This Shit

We Will "Bond"

It Will Be: Great (TRUE)

legorockraiders

Birdling Come Here I Know How To Make You Less Or More Annoying

gogogoat495

[ID: A Cruzer 4gb thumb drive /End ID]

uwulordmemes

STOP LIKING THIS IT ISN'T EVEN THAT FUNNY WTF

beemovieerotica

at the vet because apparently tylenol decided to eat a joint

she's going to be ok she's just high as fuck

me:

the evil demon who lives in my brain: hey. hey. what if you set up a whole new account. right. put a pic of your best friend’s ideal girl and started chatting them up. then, once youve established a romantic relationship with them you just fucking disappear. they would be devastated. would that be fucked up or what

me: why the hell would i do that

the evil demon who lives in my brain: lmao idk but you’re the one who thought of it so you’re irredeemably evil now have fun

me:

me:

me: man what the FUCK